


The Brightest Star Calls Me Home

by midnightflame



Series: As Human as We Are [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Dreams and Nightmares, Kissing, Love, M/M, Marriage, Orpheus and Eurydice Myth, Soulmates, Summer Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 18:26:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14574969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightflame/pseuds/midnightflame
Summary: A summer's night. A rooftop party. Keith recalls a dream that haunted him and spills his fears to Shiro.[Written for the Between Two Points Sheith Zine]





	The Brightest Star Calls Me Home

**Author's Note:**

> This was my piece for the [Between Two Points](https://twitter.com/BetweenTwoPoint) Illustrated Sheith zine! It seems that most have been sent out and we've been given permission to post things now. My artist was the lovely [Osu](https://twitter.com/osu_voltron)here on Twitter!
> 
> I've also included some endnotes that I hope will explain some things. Thank you again for reading!

There was a story told once, so many years ago, and since then, it has unfolded in a thousand different ways, over a thousand different tongues, passing through thousands of different hearts. It tells of a soul, having lost the dearest thing in its existence, venturing to the very depths of the world to stand before the gods of death themselves, all in the hope of bringing back home the very heart of them.

“Which one are you looking at now?”

Keith can hear the dull thud of music coming from behind the sliding glass doors. He knows the notes and the repetitive rhythm, could even line-up the lyrics if prompted, but he hears the stars better. Even the din of a city’s summer revelers isn't enough to drown out their song, this quiet trembling sound that drips from the sky and coats the world in dreams.

“Lyra.”

Beside him, Shiro shifts his weight, leaning onto his forearms as he settles in over the brick wall encircling the rooftop. He glances over his shoulder to catch Keith’s gaze, and once caught, drags both their lines of sight towards the sky. It’s a rich drown-yourself-in-hope sort of blue, dark enough to court midnight but lacking the devouring depth black tends to carry within it. And all across its reach, starlight threads itself throughout its surface, silver offsetting the pale golden glow of fairy lights strung across the terrace.

“Where is it?”

Shiro reaches out, tracing stars across the night sky with his index finger, but Keith isn’t watching. He’s looking at Shiro, at the way his lips part with every name of every star, at the smile that hugs the corner of his mouth like seawater to a diver’s skin.

“I had this dream. . .” Keith says, sudden yet not entirely so. A shift in topic certainly, but the thought has been lingering in his mind for hours. 

Shiro had stopped talking several seconds before, his gaze lost to the night sky, his body so impossibly close. But the moment those words are out, Keith finds himself at the mercy of Shiro’s full attention. His brow is furrowed, gray eyes consumed by the warmth of concern, and Keith thinks it’s the perfect image of home. 

Quietly clearing his throat, Shiro finally asks, “What sort of dream?”

He runs his tongue along his lower lip, nerves kicking up a fuss as Keith recalls the scenes of the night prior. Flashes of galaxies gone dark, of planets emptied of life. He remembers the soul-crunching ache of loneliness in the void, the way it ate at his very heart. With a shake of his head, Keith settles in beside Shiro, leaning into his shoulder, and turns his gaze towards the sky once again.

“It felt like another lifetime. . .I don’t remember how it began, only that you were gone. We'd been in space, traveling or something like that. I don’t really know.”

His voice feels heavy, the words sinking into his tongue as he tries to explain the dream that had felt as alive to him as the city around him does tonight. 

“We'd been together all that time, exploring maybe. I don’t remember completely. But it was like the whole universe had been ours for the taking and then. . .just nothing, Shiro. I kept looking. Searching through what felt like thousands of different galaxies, thousands of different planets, but no matter how many lives I searched through I never found you.”

Keith remembers it all like he had lived through it himself. The galaxies had been nothing like the images Shiro is so fond of showing him though. There had been nothing of the brilliant pinks, purples, and blues staining them bright. It had been nothing more than a complete blackout of space and time, with the occasional pulse of starlight to guide him one way or another. And the planets had been so empty, even the ones flourishing with greenery and reminding him of Earth. It was as if some force had swept through the universe and hollowed out its existence. 

“It was like I spent lifetimes searching for you, but everywhere I went. . .you weren’t there. I didn’t know what to make of it all.”

Keith glances over suddenly, pulled from the images of places he had never known but left his heart aching for some nameless reason nonetheless. He’s not aware of his movements until Shiro brings his attention to them with the lightest touch upon his wrist. Dropping his gaze, he catches the way his fingers are twisting the ring on his left hand, turning it around and around in a restless fit of motion. He huffs out a laugh as Shiro slides his hand along his forearm and eases his fingers into the spaces between Keith’s own until their hands are clasped together. 

“And what do you think of it now?” Shiro asks, quietly, as he tips his head in towards Keith’s.

“I don’t know. But when I woke up, you were right there beside me. It all seemed so -”

There’s no further room for a reply as Shiro kisses him, the gesture full of reassurance, full of calm. But Keith sees stars when Shiro’s lips meet his. He sees galaxies different from the ones that spun across his dreams, brilliant breaths of space that sing with color, filling the emptiness of the universe with their blues and purples and pinks that glimmer with starlight and a thousand different hopes. When Shiro kisses him, Keith sees tomorrow, and beyond that, he sees forever. 

“I still don’t know what I think about it, to be honest. . .” The smallest smile takes his lips, a little bit hopeless and whole lot of _in love_. “But. . .I think I get to keep you in this one, Takashi.”

**Author's Note:**

> So. This story is actually a part of the [Amaranthine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160347/chapters/27597045) and [As Seasons Shift](https://archiveofourown.org/series/688371) timeline! This one fits at the end of the Seasons portion of this timeline, but the dream sequence I hope brings some of you back to Amaranthine and it's predecessor stories following that part of the timeline. And in all of this, a bit of that play on the Orpheus myth, which I so dearly love. 
> 
> Feel free to come yell at me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ByMidnightFlame) over this or if you haven't check out the other stories in this whole timeline, go and hit those up! This was the last little piece I was waiting to drop on everything (aside from _maybe_ a high school prequel to Seasons and an actual wedding thing for them  >>). But thank you again for reading! I really hope you've enjoyed all of this! <3


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